What is happening!! I think the world and Hollywood have simply gone batshit crazy! Normal every day people standing up at hearings and in courts saying that wearing a mask is unconstitutional and muzzles them like mad dogs?! Do they not see the direct correlation between spikes in COVID cases and crowds gathering without masks? Do they really need a governor, mayor, or President to tell them to wear a fucking mask?! I was reading the news, thinking this could be the craziest shit I have ever lived through – and then I went through the entertainment section, and found shit even crazier.
Okay, so much crazy shit to talk about, let’s start with the craziest – voice over actors, who you can’t even see – are stepping down so that the correct color of people, that you can’t see, can fill the role of the correct color characters.
Yea, this means Mike Henry, who does a bunch of voices for Seth McFarlane, one of his biggest characters is Cleveland from Family Guy. Cleveland is black, with a nice mustache, and Mike Henry is white. Nobody knew, but apparently that was offensive. Mike also voiced a bear in The Cleveland Show, which ran for 5 years and was cancelled in 2013. I wonder if they wanted to get a talking bear to play that part as well. I mean, where does it stop? It’s voice over acting. You hire whoever best fulfills your artistic vision, not whose color, that you can’t even see, is correct.
Does this mean that Family Guy now goes and hires a horrible voice over actor not because he’s good but because of the color of his skin? So you have a shit show that gets cancelled right away but at least everyone was color coded to their animated character? Utterly ridiculous. You are trying to make a quality piece of entertainment. That means hiring and using the best – not the best person who matches the color of your drawings! It is absolutely insane.
Family Guy is not the only show doing this – oh no. The Simpsons chimed in too. The Simpsons, who has a grown woman playing Bart – completely wrong gender and age – but nobody cares. Nancy Cartwright is a 63 year old woman voicing a young boy and has been for 31 years. Not a peep and everyone was happy.
Nancy will apparently go on voicing Bart, being wrong age and wrong gender, but the two biggest characters that will be affected by this will be Carlton Carlson and Dr Julius M. Hibbert. These two biggest non-white characters, one voiced by the legendary Harry Shearer, will be found new voices that match their skin tone.
Minor parts, sure, but still, just an insane notion that I think is batshit crazy. Of course this movement is not new – it started back in January. Well, the biggest name began this movement in January with the brilliant Hank Azaria saying he was stepping down as Apu on The Simpsons. Hank has been criticized for a long time for playing Apu and playing him against such a stereotype. Apu is the convenience store clerk and owner who is an Indian immigrant. Homer used to make fun of his religion and cultural artifacts that he had around the store. Nobody minded the humor, but a white guy playing an Indian immigrant?! For shame!! Ridicule and embarrass him all you want, just make sure the actor is of correct origin!!
Other actors following this incredibly stupid movement are Kristen Bell and her character on Central Park on Apple TV, which no one cares about. And Jenny Slate of Netflix’s Big Mouth, again, which nobody cares about. Those little actors and cartoons can change and shift all they want because the shows suck anyway and it may be an improvement. However shows like Family Guy and Simpsons, which have reached the zenith of art and humor – should just stay the way they are. You can only get worse if you start switching shit around on a show that is already fantastic. They say you can not improve upon perfection, and you are batshit crazy for thinking so – well like I said – the world has officially gone batshit crazy.
See ya next Thursday!
Follow Paul on Twitter: @pauliek2003
The views expressed in this column are that of the author and does not reflect those of Place To Be Nation.com.
